Beauty and the Beasts

Parker was the one who brought up the hot water, and also, a large bunch of fresh medicinal herbs.

Bai Qingqing allowed him to help her wipe and cleanse her body. He then applied the crushed medicinal herbs on her body, covering her entire body with green goop.

Even her animal skin clothing was stained by the juice.

Bai Qingqing could feel the clothes sticking to her body. She said to Curtis, “Clothes made from your skin are the best. If I was wearing them now, they wouldn’t have gotten dirty.”

“When the hot season comes, I’ll shed skin again.” Heartache evident on his face, Curtis flicked out his tongue and licked her face. “There’s still plenty of snakeskin leftover from last year. I’ll go find them?”

Bai Qingqing shook her head. “Forget it, it’s so far away.”

“I’ll go!”

Winston’s voice rang from below the tree. He then crawled into the tree hole. “I know where they are hidden. I’ll go back and retrieve them.”

“It’s really too far!” said Bai Qingqing.

Curtis raised his snake tail and prepared to send Winston flying, but Bai Qingqing—with her great foresight—hurriedly raised a leg and pinned it down.

“Oh, right. Are you okay now, Winston?” Bai Qingqing worriedly sized him up as she recalled how he had behaved a while ago.

Winston, with his weather-beaten face, didn’t look all that well. After being walloped by Parker, a few bruises could be seen on his body.

“I was poisoned by the scorpion venom again. But I can take it. The leader of the scorpion tribe has been killed, so that group of scorpion beastmen won’t show up anymore.”

Winston spoke in a bland tone, as though he was merely discussing the weather. It was only when he said that the scorpion tribe leader had been killed that joy was seen in his eyes.

Feeling both heartache and guilt, Bai Qingqing said, “Then, all the more you can’t go. You should stay at home… cough, and rest.”

The mention of the word “home” caused the three males in the tree hole to prick up their ears. Intense delight surged in Winston’s eyes, while Parker looked furious. As for Curtis, he directly swept his snake tail and sent Winston flying out of the tree hole.

“Curtis.” Bai Qingqing pulled Curtis’s hand and pleaded. “Don’t be calculative with someone who’s wounded.”

With an icy face, Curtis didn’t reply to her. And when Winston attempted to crawl into the tree hole again, Curtis sent him flying out once more.

Just like this, Winston constructed a simple nest underneath the tree and started living there. Every time it rained, his nest would become completely drenched. Still, Winston felt happy living there, and he looked spirited every single day.

As Bai Qingqing was particular about hygiene, her wounds didn’t become inflamed, and they were more or less healed in a matter of days. Today, she finally obtained permission from Curtis to go down the tree.

It had only been several days, but the plants outside seemed a layer thicker.

Winston was making starch noodles. He had run throughout the mountain forest and dug out all the stone fruits, wanting to make enough food to last Bai Qingqing for a year.

The stone fruits of various colors formed a carpet on the floor. Even the surrounding trees had starch noodles hanging from them. There was light red, light yellow, light purple, light green… even from a great distance away one could smell the fragrance of the starch noodles.

Bai Qingqing was astonished by this exaggerated sight. She walked to Winston’s side and asked, “Did you make all this by yourself?”

It had been several days since he saw Bai Qingqing. Intense delight appeared in the depths of his eyes at the sight of her. “This is the last batch of stone fruits. The tiger beastmen told me that if I wait any longer, the stone fruits will start to rot. If I don’t make them now, once you finish the starch noodles in the house, you’d have to wait till the cold season before you get to eat them again.”

“Are you tired?” Bai Qingqing felt exhausted simply looking at the numerous stone fruits laid all over the ground. “How are you feeling? How’s the poison?”

Winston shook his head. “The effects of the poison are getting increasingly weaker. I can control it.”

Bai Qingqing said, “I’ll go get Parker to help out. It’s too much work.”

“It’s very fast actually, much easier than planting rice. There’s no need for that.” After Winston finished speaking, his gaze lingered upon her, before lowering his head and continuing to press the stone fruits.